1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and device for determining touches, and more particularly, to a method and device for determining a single touch or a plurality of touches.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Touch displays have been widely used in the various electronic devices. One approach is to employ a touch sensitive panel to define a 2-D touch area on the touch display, where sensing information is obtained by scanning along horizontal and vertical axes of the touch panel for determining the touch or proximity of an external object (e.g. a finger) on or near the touch panel. U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,720 discloses a capacitive touch display.
Sensing information can be converted into a plurality of continuous signal values by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). By comparing signal values before and after the touch or approaching of the external object, the position touched or approached by the external object can be determined.
Generally, a controller controlling the touch panel will first obtain sensing information when there is no external object touching or approaching as a baseline. For example, in a capacitive touch panel, each conductive line corresponds to a respective baseline. The controller determines whether there is an external object touching or approaching by comparing sensing information obtained subsequently with the baseline, and further determines the position of the external object. For example, when there is no external object touching or approaching the touch panel, subsequent sensing information with respect to the baseline will be or close to zero. Thus, the controller can determine whether there is an external object touching or approaching by determining whether the sensing information with respect to the baseline is or close to zero.
As shown in FIG. 1A, when an external object 12 (e.g. a finger) touches or approaches a sensing device 120 of a touch display 10, sensing information of sensors 140 on an axis (e.g. x axis) is converted into signal values as shown in FIG. 1B. Corresponding to the appearance of the finger, the signal values show a waveform or finger profile. The position of the peak 14 of the finger profile indicates the position touched or approached by the finger.
However, when multiple touches are close, signal values corresponding to these touches tend to concentrate together, especially if the paths of two touches cross each other. In many situations, a single threshold cannot determine whether it is a single or multiple touches, and thus it is difficult to make correct position judgments.
From the above it is clear that prior art still has shortcomings. In order to solve these problems, efforts have long been made in vain, while ordinary products and methods offering no appropriate structures and methods. Thus, there is a need in the industry for a novel technique that solves these problems.